A bridge circuit is used for communicating between a Universal Serial Bus (USB) and other bus protocols, such as an Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) bus protocol. The bridge circuit and peripheral devices coupled to the bridge circuit can be independently powered, or powered from the USB bus. The bridge circuit can control its own power consumption and possibly power to the connected device.
Several pins are required on the bridge circuit for managing these different power configurations. These additional power management pins increase the cost and complexity of the bridge circuit and limit bridge circuit integration.
The present invention addresses this and other problems associated with the prior art.